KLRC Listeners Help Grant Christmas Wishes

Siloam Springs, Ark. (December 20, 2007) - Christmas will be brighter for many Northwest Arkansas families this year thanks to listeners of local radio station 101.1 FM KLRC. KLRC initiated its “Christmas Wish” campaign in hopes of touching the lives of listeners who are facing challenges and need a helping hand this season. Little did they know that the listeners of KLRC would go above and beyond to grant more that twenty-five different wishes ranging from providing food for an elderly woman to buying Christmas presents for a single mom and her children.
"The Northwest Arkansas Community has embraced ‘Christmas Wish’,” said Jen Ryan, morning show co-host and promotions director. “Schools, businesses, families and children are all working together to make a Christmas special for others. It has been humbling to watch our listeners take care of listeners.”
After Thanksgiving, KLRC began asking listeners to make a Christmas wish online for themselves or someone they knew. The entries were read on the air beginning in December and the phones rang with the generosity of a caring community wanting to grant the specific wishes.
Some of the fulfilled wishes include:
• Giving a soldier a laptop computer so that he can communicate with his family when he is deployed to Iraq.
• Giving a family a five the chance to be together for Christmas after living in two different states since June while one of their children undergoes chemotherapy. The father and twin boys, who are living in Northwest Arkansas, will be flown to Ohio for Christmas thanks to a group of kindhearted people. The children will also receive Christmas gifts, bibles and some much needed new clothes.
• Providing a travel trailer for a family to stay in while their infant has heart surgery at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
• Buying gifts for the children of a single mom who is having trouble making ends meet this Christmas.
• Filling an elderly woman’s pantry and freezer with food when she had been forced to choose between paying an unexpected plumbing bill or buying groceries for the month
“There is no better way to celebrate the meaning of Christmas than to give to others,” said Mark Michaels, KLRC program director and morning show host. “We have generous listeners who love to show compassion to others. It has been overwhelming to see how eager they have been to help out.”
This event marks the second month in a row that listeners have partnered with the station on special events designed to give to others. In November, KLRC listeners stepped up to perform random acts of kindness in response to KLRC’s “Pay it Forward” campaign.
101.1 FM KLRC is a non-profit, listener-supported, radio station located in Siloam Springs, Ark. KLRC broadcasts in Northwest Ark. at 101.1 FM, 99.1 FM in Bentonville and worldwide at www.KLRC.com. KLRC is a ministry of John Brown University.